Out Of Mothballs

It has been a long, dark, cold, wet winter season. We are finally pulling the cat out of the barn where it was stowed during the dreary days.

First job was to back-blade the rock road. Back-blade-ing is simply driving the bulldozer backward with the blade scraping along the surface to smooth areas. Driving backward is a task that is designated strictly to Mike. If the blade is too high, it is ineffective, if it is too low it gouges the surface leaving washboard ruts that are worse than all the cattle muddy footy-prints.

It is a slow process to travel backwards from the barn, around to the outdoor feeders and then along the hillside all the way to the far end of the property where the spring breaks out of the hillside. This one road took nearly 2 hours.

The smoothed road will make it easier for the herd to walk back and forth and for the Gator to make it to the back of the field without driving through the pastures that are fenced off from the herd and driving so the grass to grow into hay.

It will still be a while before it is dry enough to start logging for this year.